Underwater glove puts octopus' abilities on the hand of humans
A team of researchers led by Virginia Tech's Michael Bartlett have developed an octopus-inspired glove capable of securely gripping objects underwater. Their research was selected for the July 13 cover of Science Advances.
Humans aren’t naturally equipped to thrive in an underwater environment. ... In such an environment, the human hand also is poorly equipped to hold onto things. Anyone who has tried to hold onto a wriggling fish will testify that underwater objects are difficult to grip with our land-dwelling fingers.
“There are critical times when this becomes a liability,” said Bartlett, an assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering. “Nature already has some great solutions, so our team looked to the natural world for ideas. The octopus became an obvious choice for inspiration.”
Rescue divers, underwater archaeologists, bridge engineers, and salvage crews all use their hands to extract people and objects from water. Human hands with less capability to hold slippery things must resort to using more force, and an iron grip can sometimes compromise those operations. When a delicate touch is required, it would be helpful to have hands made for water.
Those are the very appendages that Bartlett and his fellow researchers sought to build. His team in the Soft Materials and Structures Lab adapted biological solutions into new technologies made from soft materials and robotics. ...
